My earliest political memories are of Helen Suzman, the veteran anti-apartheid MP, who died yesterday.

I was born in London, but I lived in South Africa for three years from 1968-70 – between the ages of five and eight. I think it was probably possible to grow up in London completely oblivious to politics, but that wasn’t really an option in South Africa. My first political memory is of a general election in apartheid South Africa – seeing posters for Suzman being nailed to trees in the rich, liberal Johannesburg constituency of Houghton that she represented. Read more